Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

clanciai The most interesting character here is Jack Hawkins as the bowman in his unpredictable shifts of moods and expressive diction - it's a pleasure just hearing him talk in every scene he is in. Orson Welles dominates, of course, as he always does, this time as a conquering khan with the ambition to subjugate all China and after that Rome and England, in which scheme he tries to interest and engage Tyrone Power, who almost falls for it.The story is great although somewhat muddled as Tyrone Power never knows what he really wants, which vacillation reaches a climax when he gets a girl on his hands in his sleeping tent.Another interesting character is Michael Rennie as the King, stately and sympathetic as ever, and also Finlay Curries as the grandfather, greatly enhancing the interest of every scene in which he is present.The most fascinating part of the film though is the visualization of the Silk Road, as the caravan travels from somewhere in the Orient, could be Cairo or Baghdad, all the way across the deserts and mountains to China, and the caravan scenes are spectacular to say the least. Also the scenes from China are interesting with their snapshots of court life and the Chinese character trembling at the mercy of the awful conqueror and resorting mainly to superstition for its only defense.It's a kind of English Marco Polo spectacle, with books, paper, compass and gunpowder and all that, and it is very well made. Henry Hathaway was qualified enough to turn out this masterpiece of a romantic oriental epic to be remembered.

Deedee I have always loved this film for its fairy tale quality. Sure Power is mature to play a student--IMO, the screenwriters, producers and director are to blame for not coming up with a script adjustment--but he is a highly romantic leading man, who is wonderful to look at and fully invested in the action. He is marvelous as well at connecting throughout with all the other actors as he always does. It should be noted that Jack Hawkins is too old for his role, too. In the book and in the film the character of Tris is also a student and contemporary of Power's character. But what of it? He's great and he and Power have good "buddy film" chemistry. In addition to the two wonderful leads,The Black Rose has a nice cast of supporting actors, an attractive score, and lavish sets and costumes to illustrate this purely fanciful story. I personally like Orson Wells only in minor roles such as this one, since for my taste he tends to overact and chew the scenery. Cecile Aubrey, the female lead is unusual and plays it rather naive, but it fits well with her odd character. I recommend The Black Rose to anyone who likes old time movies that transport you to far away places and times.

roeschter-220-321816 The movie is a childhood memory, and a well remembered one. I think its a underrated little jewel from the 50s, well executed for the time and set in an interesting historical period. I appreciate the movie for being the only (western) adventure movie set in Mongol expansion period I ever came across and it got me interested in this particular historical period for live. Although not very accurate on historical details it gives an overall good impression of the time. Orson Welles playing Mongol general Bayan as quick-witted, educated and tolerant, though ruthless, forms the acting highlight of the movie. Although other roles don't stand by their acting the collection of characters presented is quite amusing. The movie stands out from other adventure movies of the period by avoiding a clear hero and villain patterns, most characters are ambiguous. The plot is the weakest point of the movie, covering a storyline spanning years and stretching from England to China it simply tries to compress too much into its 120min. Watching it as a lineup of historical scenes during quite fascinating times makes it enjoyable nevertheless.

blanche-2 Tyrone Power stars in "The Black Rose," a 1950 adventure film also starring Jack Hawkins, Orson Welles, Cecile Aubrey, and Michael Rennie. Power plays Walter of Gurney, an Oxford scholar who hates the ruling Normans, takes off for Cathay with his friend Tris (Jack Hawkins). They wind up traveling with General Bayan (Orson Welles) and hiding a young girl, Maryam, known as The Black Rose.The film is based on Thomas Costain's novel, and thanks to Tyrone Power, I became a fan of Costain's and read many of his books as a teenager. Very romantic, they'll get you through puberty. I seem to remember a lot of hotter encounters between Walter and Maryam, though the film does contain some romance."The Black Rose" was made at a time when 20th Century Fox and all of the other Hollywood studios were going through major changes since the government had broken the alliance between the studios and theater chains. Even with their problems, there is no expense spared on "The Black Rose." It is a sumptuous production, done on location and in color, with a top cast even in the minor roles: Herbert Lom, Laurence Harvey, Robert Blake, and famously, the voice of Peter Sellers dubbing the role of Bedoya.The acting is uniformly good. Orson Welles played Bayan to fund one of his film projects. Normally he phones these performances in, using his formidable technique to get him through - he probably did the same here; sometimes it's hard to tell. He's excellent and underplays, being smooth in his role rather than barbaric, and he and Power have good screen chemistry. Off the screen, the two went back to the early '30s in New York when both were cast in a tour of Romeo and Juliet - this tour is captured in a roman a clef, "Quicksilver" by Fitzroy Davis. During the filming of "The Black Rose", director Hathaway needed some time away from Welles and, after being harassed by him in the company dining room, had a table set up in another room for himself, his wife, Tyrone Power and Linda Christian, so they could eat in peace. Welles became convinced they were getting special food and showed up. "We don't want special food," Hathaway informed him. "We want quiet." But Welles got his own table in this area, and the Powers and the Hathaways headed back to the main dining area.Jack Hawkins is immensely likable as Tris. Cecile Aubrey, who would abandon her career and become a very accomplished screenwriter in France, is the gamine here. Some may find her a little too young-looking and a little too bubbly, but she is quite lovely as the childlike Maryam. Actually, she reminded me a little of Power's first wife, the French actress Annabella. Power is excellent as the adventurous Walter. One thing interesting about Power is that he never asked for scripts to be changed to reflect his age, and 20th Century Fox gave him scripts during this period that called for him to play characters anywhere from 10 to 15 years younger than he was, which in this movie is 36. It doesn't detract here; it's more obvious in "Rawhide," when he's supposed to be a green kid, and in "The Sun Also Rises." During their long working relationship, Zanuck apparently never thought of Power as anything but the young man he first hired in 1935. Walter is the kind or role the actor was sick of playing; he would shortly begin doing more stage work and form his own production company.This is a sweeping adventure that many boomers will recall from "Saturday Night at the Movies" - like Power's swashbucklers, it's one of the previous generation's Saturday afternoon at the movies type films that young people remember fondly. I certainly do and am grateful for all the historical fiction I read as a result. Thankfully, this and other heretofore unreleased Power films will soon be available in a DVD collection.